Griggs courier., 1887-09-30

| tanner B. 0ucCl anu MeFl8CCl 8 1aSCS
may have shown, this Yorkshireman's 8
enforced fast had taught much more
effectively ninety-one years ago.
\ For one month from the time of total
abstinence from food the unfortunate
man retained calm and even cheerful
dcmeanor, Occasionally he expressed
a wish that he could swallow, but not
often nor anxiously. When questioned
as to his appetite, he always said that
he felt no sense of hunger sufficient to
cause him any uneasiness. Nor was he
disturbed by thirst. Probably the ex-
ternal applications, which naturally
tended to allay thirst, to some degree
quieted such pains as the sense of hum
ger might have been expected to pro-
duce, for they included strong infus-
ions Of laudanum. During this month
of absolute fasting the temperature and
the pulse were natural. His mind
seemed to retain its full strength.
.He occupied himself a good deal in
his private concerns" says the account
from which l have obtained these par
tlculars,-the penny Clyclopedia. y
land, as usual, interested himself in
public affairs" To husband his
strength as much as possible, he was
advised to be much in bed; but, until
the last few days of his life, he dressed
and redressed daily, and not only
walked about his room, but through the
house. ellis nights were quiet, his
sleep sound and apparently refresh
ing"
Before the delirium set in which
ushered in the final stages of his fast,
the patient had very pleasant dreams,
popularity of which was that they
affected him as realities, insomuch that
though told by his friends that they
were but dreams he could not for more
than moment or two remain sure that
this was the case. He laughed heartily
at the recollection of the merry jokes
which had passed during gay meet
ing he had had-as he supposed, with
two Yorkshire Baronets whom he dined,
and told with glee (Which, considering
his approaching end, seems almost to
merit the peculiar descriptive term
ghoulish, recently applied to the Presi-
dent,) how they had pushed about the
bottle.
The mental incoherence indicated by
the inability to distinguish dreamsfrom
realities passed rapidly into delirium,
during which he was perpetually NUT
tering in indistinct tones, with great
restlessness and agitation. There were
now marked signs of fever, the skin
and extremities being sometimes of a
burning heat and sometimes cold and
clammy. His pulse became feeble and
irregular, and his respiration was for
the first time during the progress of his
illness laborious and painful. He be-
came cross-eyed on the thirty-third day
of total abstinence from food, and COM
planned that he saw double, but the
sensit;veness of the retina was in
creased, not, as one might have ex-
pected would be the case, diminished,
insomuch that, though till this stage of
his illness he had borne well the light
which came through the window of his
bedroom, he shrieked now when the
window-blind was drawn.
In this case, as have said. we have
stronger evidence of the power which
the human frame possesses to endure
deprivation of food than any of the fool
ish fasting men of recent times have
afforded, because they have all taken
liquid food, whereas, except from his
bath (Which, as he said, produced in
him the most delightful sensations),
our patient had no relief from either
hunger or thirst.
The Other case I shall cite, while re-
sembling the fastings of Succi, Tanner
and Merlatti in being fast from solid
food only-as also in being voluntary
was more remarkable than theirs in be-
ing of much longer duration. Ayoung
man of studious and melancholy ma
ture began somewhat severe course
of abstinence to cure certain painful
symptoms of indigestion by which he
was troubled. His plan was to abstain
from solid food for time, taking only
little water daily, into which some
orange juice had been squeezed. From
the amount given by DR.. william, super
stition as well as indigestion would
seem to have had something to do with
the form of folly into which this plan
presently developed. The young man
withdrew from business and the So
ciety Of his friends, took lodgings in
an obscure street, and entered on a
system of continued fasting, enlivened
by shorthand writing. He began to
write out the Bible in shorthand, and
had proceeded as far as the second book
of K;nra 1uhan circumstances over